Why does this card have the same rating as cards that do almost nothing? Yeah, maybe because this card does almost nothing, too.. However, there are situations where I would happily pay life to prevent lethal damage to my favourite creature, although I wouldn't also spend one card and four mana.. Then again, I'd rather create a +1/+1 counter with Unspeakable Symbol to save my creature.. Still, this card probably deserves a rating of maybe 0.8 or 0.9 or even 1.0 because it's not one of the worst cards in Magic like the other cards with a rating of 0.6! :)

Could you technically use this ability as much as you want prior to damage being dealt? (similar to the ruling on cards like Lancers en-Kor)I'm thinking this to drive my life to a very small amount then pop a Magus of the Mirror.@Omenchild Thanks. I thought it would work, I use that combo in a deck now except with Wall of Blood instead of this.

While generally it's awful, I've seen it in combination with Horobi, Death's Wail. At that point, it's "Pay 2 life: destroy target creature" which is okay in my book. Still...

Mostly, the reason is this:Your creatures take damage primarily during combat, either because they block or are blocked. The only reason you block (in general) is to prevent damage to yourself. When you use martyrs' tomb to save your blocker, you're generally going to take 4-6 damage anyways, meaning that the block that you made did almost nothing for you.It seems okay on the attack until you realize that your opponent can simply race you if you continue to use the ability to save your guys. Additionally, if he plays a high power, high toughness dude, you can no longer use the tomb to force your guys through.

If it cost {W} or {B}, it might be playable simply because the ability is sometimes relevant. at 4CMC, though, it's pretty bad.